The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-04-16

in their manner of life, there was anon;
them always enough for the necessities o
the poor, while there was rarely waste O
extravaganza with the rich.
Our fathers were very plain men. Thee
were industrious, economical, simple il
their habits and contented.
They knew little of artificial life. in any
of its forms.
Far from the madding crowds ignoble strife.
| Their sober wishes never learned TO stray;
| Along the cool, sequestered vale Of life,
They kept the nOisess tenor Of their way"
And yet, we must not understand that
our fathers were not men. But let us
rather understand that they were OnL,
men; men, unadorned with tinsel and show
unencumbered by the superAuities and
shams that so often make manhood a
mockery.
They were, as rule, men of strong con.
victions of the truth; earnest in the support
of the right and courageous in maintain.
ing the principles which they espoused.
Their surroundings were all favorable to
the development of just such simple,
honest, sturdy manhood. They were men
/ dOCucOOulCu " WOIh Will buciI OHu
mostly as tillers of the soil and workmen in
the shops, and were in position to learn
more readily and with less reluctance than
others, the wholesome lesson, which all
need to understand, that labor is not only
honorable, but that it is the legitimate and
necessary law of our being; that idleness is
perversion and cheat; that it enervates
and destroys rich and poor alike, and that
no condition in life, however surrounded
by circumstances of affiuence, can Justify
or even palliate the crime of idleness.
They exhibited, moreover, in large de-
gree, the virtue of self-reliance, without
which no success can come, either to an
individual or to nation.
With fewer advantages, they succeeded
far beyond the measure of many who have
followed them. And the prosperity which
has marked our county's history and
which we enjoy to-day, is in great part
due to the fact, that our fathers depended
upon themselves. They did not believe
much in the doctrine of delegated pow
ers," as it respects ones own business.
And in this there is the suggestion of u
valuable lesson.
For just in so far as an individual de-
parts, in the management of his affairs,
from the common-sense doctrine of self
dependence, just so far does he drift from
the possibility of successful life.
No man has a right to claim success,
who has not earned it, and he is a usurper,
who without effort upon his own part,
simply INDUCES himself upon that which
another has provided.
To produce, and not alone to consume,
is the teaching which political economy
would impress, and that nation is blest in
deed, whose people receive so wise pre-
cept. The men who have stirred the
world, and have left their impress upon the
ages in which they lived, are the men who
have gone out into life trusting in God
and themselves.
We live in an age, replete with advan-
tages and opportunities. Within the past
half century discovery and invention have
busted themselves as never before 10 the
worlds history, and have, with lavish
hand, laid their trophies at our feet. So
much, indeed, has been accomplished in
this regard, that the most extrayagant
propositions of what is to be, fail to excite
our wonder or overtax our credulity.
Everything, it would seem, around US in
the material world, has been laid under
contribution to our convenience and COM
fort. Natural forces, lying dormant
through all the centuries, have been
aroused and gathered up, and made to do
our bidding.
And there is no condition of life, or de-
partment of life work, but that has been
touched by the blessings of the fruitful
period, in which it is our good fortune to
live. Farmer, mechanic, merchant, pro-
fessional man, housewife, all have shared
and are sharing the blessings of our day
and generation. And what amazing
changes have come. The farmer of fifty
years ago, who went into his field with his
sickle in hand, merrily singing his harvest
song, and gathering his grain, straw by
straw, never for once dreaming but that
his reap-hook was the ne plus ultra of the
harvest field, would, we imagine, if he
could return after such an absence, be as.
tonished beyond expression, to see the
farmer of the present day, sitting upon the
modern reaper and binder, and riding
through his harvest, like a king in his
chariot.
And The good wife of the household, as
we see her sitting beside her spinning
wheel, "a very picture of contentment and
thrift; SO beautiful indeed, that we gomez
times feel pang Of sasFat, that such
picture has ever faded from our homes
preparing her linen or her wooden yarns
for the homespun fabrics of that day; or
else, as we see her when the evening meal
is over, seated beside the tallow dip, plying
her needle through the linens or the lin
seys; how she would wosder, and never
cease to be astonished, at the changed
methods aud Improved conveniences of
modern housekeeping. And SO we might
go on, from farm to factory, from work
shop to counting-room, through all trades
and occupations, aud everywhere find the
evidences Of the change that has come
within the fifty years of our history
everywhere find the present generation sur
rounded by advantages and opportunities
that were unknown to our fathers,
But especially has education, that mighty
power, which, coupled with public virtue,
must ever be the source and support of
free government especially do we say,
has this, been touched and quickened by
the progress of the age. Education, not
alone for the few, but for the many; not
alone of the classes, but of the masses.
While we rejoice in the fact that uni
versities and colleges have multiplied in
our land, offering the rarest advantages to
those in quest of higher education,
and while our own county Is favored with
peculiar advantages In this regard, we
boast, particularly, that under the benign
operation of our public SHOOT system, there
is not child within our borders, however
poor, but who may receive ungrudgingly,
the blessings of substantial, common
shool education. An education that will
prepare him for the practical affairs of ey-
cry day life, and qualify him to intelli-
gently discharge the duties Of free citizen
ship.